Review: Laughs abound in MCT's 'Fixing Up'

Published 3:00 am, Sunday, May 10, 2015

From left to right, Amy Rydell, Daryl Berry, Darryl Bales, Jeri Morgan and Alan Roy star in the world premiere of the 2014 McLaren Comedy Festival winner 'Fixing Up' at Midland Community Theatre.

From left to right, Amy Rydell, Daryl Berry, Darryl Bales, Jeri Morgan and Alan Roy star in the world premiere of the 2014 McLaren Comedy Festival winner 'Fixing Up' at Midland Community Theatre.

Photo: James Durbin

Review: Laughs abound in MCT's 'Fixing Up'

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If there was any pressure on director Pam Keel in producing the world premiere of "Fixing Up," that didn't show on Friday's opening night. The 2014 McLaren Comedy Festival winner was both a charming and splendorous comic affair. With characters who ranged from over-the-top to understated, the cast proficiently filled the spectrum.

We're introduced to Frank and Diana Reynolds (Darryl Bales and Jeri Morgan) who are intent on playing matchmaker to Frank's socially awkward brother Virgil (Alan Roy). In a miscommunication, the couple introduced him to two women at the same time. Sarah (Lacie LaForge), the sweet, friendly veterinarian was a stark contrast to brusque businesswoman Taylor (Erica Reagan). They all will meet at the Reynolds home that is undergoing major renovations.

Virgil has an accident with his car and a cat, which introduces Lawrence and Cassandra, who happen to be Sarah's parents. Byron tracked Taylor to the Reynolds' household to beg for her hand in marriage. And Lawrence and Cassandra begin to pitch their taxidermist son's life story as a potential project to Frank, who is a documentary filmmaker.

Got all that?

These outlandish scenarios worked fine for the comedy, mostly thanks to the cast. Each actor delivered a fully realized character that kept the show on point.

As the ostentatious parents, Berry and Rydell were wonderfully high camp. For the new agey Cassandra, Rydell tapped into the perfect amount of conviction and weirdness while she also proved to be a magnetic force onstage.

But Reagan was equally dynamic. She created a condescending and snobbish Taylor that was a perfect antithesis to LaForge's more modest Sarah. Bales and Morgan were great at depicting normal, which can be difficult. And Roy gave Virgil a heartwarming appeal with aw-shucks acting. Nicholson's character may have been the most out-of-place (an Egyptologist who keeps running into strangers' homes?), but his charismatic attention to Byron's nuance was exact.

The play suffered a bit in the writing and mostly in the second act.

Authors and married couple Jenni and John Marsh created a mostly delightful farce. Situations delved into the ridiculous with séances, furry costume fights and mistaken animal identities. These all worked well because of the very physical capabilities of the cast but sometimes the second act felt overwritten.

In places, exposition was forced where characters were explaining too much the “why” of their scenes, and pacing sometimes lagged because of this. For first-time playwrights, this can be an easy fallacy.

But overall, "Fixing Up" was sitcom-type fun. Michael Fields and Isabel Arsiaga rounded out the cast as perhaps the most normal of the characters. Lauren Lusk's set was imaginative, quite literally, from floor to ceiling. And the fuzzy-costume fight has been one of the most laugh-riotous scenes in theater this year.